Dudes Watch Brokeback Mountain

how about 4) while yapping to the one person who listens to you yap while you're driving so you can't write it down (the European mind cannot comprehend this.)

having really really good dialogue for your story but it’s either 1) in your bed in the middle of the night or 2) in the bathroom shower, so you have to wait about fifteen minutes before you can get to your notebook to jot down the ideas but by then it has dissipated and so has your entire sense of being in this universe *screeches in disintegrated*

Ipol (Conlang) Synopsis

Day 3 (? 4?) of writing my novel and I actually wrote a bunch today! But today I wanted to do something different: present on the most-used conlang in my novel: Ipol.

Ipol ['i.pol] is an Eastern Zenestian language descended from Classical Zispoel by way of Old Ipol. Ipol is actually the word used for the accent spoken in Ir Nouzonif (Ip. I Nusnif [i.'nus.nif]), the capital of Zeneste. Most other dialects, including several languages, are lumped together into Ipol Sinezo (literally: Rice-farmer Ipol.)

Phonology

Consonants

Ipol has 16 consonants:

Oral Stops: p, b, t*, d*, k, g*

* t, d > tʃ, dʒ / _ i

**Nasal Stops: **n, m

Fricatives: f, s*, h

* s > ʃ / _ {i, e}

Semivowels: j, w

Liquids: l

Rhotics*: r*, rr

r > /ɹ/ / _ {#, consonant}

r > /ɾ/ / (everywhere else)

rr is the uvular rhotic /ʀ/ found in French

Vowels

Ipol has 12 vowels.

High: i, ij, u, uw

Mid: e, ee, o, oo (/oː/), oh (/ɔː/)

Low: æ (/æː/), a, aa (/aː/)

Phonotactics

Ipol is a (C)(S)V(C)(C)(C) language:

C = any consonant

V = any vowel + r

S = semivowel + r

Translation + Teaser

Excerpt from Part One:

Dr. Este grunted, wrinkling her nose at me. "If you know what's good for you," she rephrased, "you'll stay far, far away from the attic." I gulped. Then, I shook my head. What were a bunch of sticks going to do to me when I wasn't looking. "Why? The Sensonif isn't hiding up there, is she?" I realized that the first stained glass window depicted the three Heroes: the Heroes of Life, Earth, and Language. Then the other window depicted the Hero of Earth killing the Sensonif-a monster said to be fifty-feet high and filled with lava. One touch from her is said to kill a person in seconds. My comment stiffened the Vice President, who stopped. Then, hanging her head, she gripped my shoulder and looked up into my eyes, her gaze lifeless and cold. "Nerte treste ésispijen," she whispered, "Sispoh sispijz la eheempijz." If you care about yourself, you mustn't go into the attic.

Nerte - you.ABS

Treste - you.ACC

sispijen - believe in, care about

Sispoh - must

sispijz - (negative modal verb)

la - in, into, towards

eheempijz - attic (literally house-up, or the top bit of a house)

Conclusion

Given that Dr. Este is the Hero of Earth who sailed around the world with the other two Heroes (of Life and Language,) what do you think is in the attic that she's so worried about?

Day 28 (40 in base 7) of re-writing my novel ft. The Great Coalition

Four weeks officially! This is so exciting!

Part Three is coming along greatly and I'm still so excited for its completion. As a follow-up to my post earlier today, let's talk about the Great Coalition.

The Great Coalition

The only change to the flag was the black background on the right being added as symbolism for the Hero of Earth.

With the sole goal of recapturing Ir Nouzonif, Zenée, Tolftorrijv, Atepsi, Ytos, and Itaush all form the Great Coalition.

The Recapture of Ir Nouzonif

The White Army and Atepsi stage their armies at the Odapir border. Rebel groups in Pisteeks stage the Tolftijv army, and in Sedrosteks the Zenée army will set up on the border with Ir Nouzonif.

The Hero of Earth revealed that the President stole her technology to put an anti-magic barrier around Ir Nouzonif, so nobody will have their Gift once inside the city limits.

Ytos, Itaush, and the Atepsi navy are sent to guard the Eastern Sea and ensure that the President doesn't escape that way. Everyone knows her goal is to escape with the magic and the Heros of Life and Language's bodies. None of the four remaining Heroes can let that happen.

Day 14 (20 in base 7) of writing my novel again

Woohoo! I'm at two weeks of consistent progress!

I expanded Part Two to around 7,500 words today, which makes the whole thing around the 19,000 word count. I don't know what my original estimates for this thing were, but my newest estimates for how long this thing will be are between 70,000 and 100,000, since I'm probably only 20% of the way through and I'm already almost breaking 20,000. Definitely not a bad thing, it's just how the story I'm trying to tell is coming out.

Tomorrow will be national Odapir day (I decree it!) because I need to flesh the language and culture out. While there's already a substantial mass to work with, it's not ready to be translating anything, and I need translations.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

The only good thing from all of this is that now I have an in-depth understanding of the dynamics that create this kind of situation, which is kind-of a must for Evil Government TM. Easily the worst way to get an in-depth understanding of that but...

I have a foolproof strategy for worldbuilding these days (as an American):

Step 1: Wait for Trump/MAGA to do something stupid and perform insane levels of Orwellian double-think to justify it.

Step 2: Write it down and change the names around.

Day 44 (1:20) of rewriting my novel

Today I didn't log many words, but that's ok.

Today I continued my journey in writing Part Three in reverse. Instead of writing the long, boring car scene, I skip to the good part-making the plan to convince Governor Bunthun to help, only to have the plan ripped away violently from underneath the New Heroes. Classic storytelling, but interesting nonetheless.

I don't know why, but the idea of post-novel canon has been living in my head rent-free. Like, I think I know how I want the rest of the novel to go:

the Coalition grows in number,

they take Ir Nouzonif only to find that President Sluwfa has run off with the remaining two Old Heroes' magics,

Izi and Tagif go and stop President Sluwfa while Hota and Lozef remain to keep the remains of Ir Nouzonif stable,

and Izi and Tagif return and restore the Old Heroes, balancing Magic and bringing Meiste back to having a physical representation when They want it (don't ask.)

The outcome of all this is a couple things:

A bunch of power-hungry warlords control most of the Old Confederacy

The situation in Odapir is particularly dire, considering the country will have been in full-blown civil war for several weeks.

But, as of right now, I'm not sold on writing a sequel.

Writing process taglist: @oldfashionedidiot

If you'd like to be added to any of my taglists, respond to this taglist post, or DM me and I can add you that way.

Day 33 (1:03 in extended base 30/7) of re-writing my novel

I hit 40,000 words today!

I am also still chugging along and building up Taguchif's character as I go in this first draft, since she's the second least developed Hero. (The least developed Hero being the Hero of Language, Pagjom.)

I am, unfortunately, very prepared for Part Three to drag on and on for all eternity, since there's so much that needs to happen for the next really big event (that is, Lozerief returns, begging for forgiveness.) It may get to a point where I start writing backwards from that point while I trudge through the boring.

Well, I don't think it's boring, it's mostly just full of characterization of Izi and Hota that they won't get anywhere else. Not only is it for my own sake (because they're easily my favorite couple to write of my OCs: see also, Lozerief and Tev; Yessei and Stardust) but it's also for the sake of recovering from the end of Part Two.

Day 20 (26 in base 7) of rewriting my novel.

I did a lot of planning today, but I didn’t add any words to the novel today.

Also, a new character just kinda… popped out of nowhere yesterday while I was writing?

Rice farmer becomes Emperor and now must balance global politics and the magic that keeps his world together at the same time.

looking for active writeblrs 🦇

i’ve had quite the break from writeblr. now i’d like to join some wip tag lists, read, and support others who are actively writing!

reblog / like with a comment describing your wip in one sentence (i know it’s hard) or link to your wip so i can check it out!

bonus if it’s fantasy, rivalry-themed, or has some world-building.

Considering Meiste is being written from a 1st person limited point of view (that POV being Izi’s exclusively) I think it would make more sense if it felt like he were naming the chapters, himself.

I.e. Chapter 1: That was Where it All Started

(Henceforth, I’ll use X to denote a digit of unknown value)

Chapter XX: Ruining my Own Coronation

Chapter XX: Odapir City is a Crazy Place

Chapter XX: The Big Lie, Revealed

Chapter XX: Look Who Came Crawling Back for More

Let’s go back to naming our chapters!

Here are some examples of chapters names I’ve come up with!

- Break you out of your shell

- A plot to make the girl happy again

- Yesterday is a memory we can't all forget

- Regret is something we get over by doing

Lets hear some more unique chapter names!